Cons:

By now it's abundantly clear that the minds at Free Radical Design know what they're doing when it comes to designing a FPS. The latest effort by Free Radical, TimeSplitters: Future Perfect, doesn't exactly break new ground, nor does it offer up fresh new perspectives on gaming. What it does do, however, is offer up some unadulterated run-'n-gun goodness. Future Perfect is packed with so many features that even the most jaded FPS fans will find something they like on offer; decimating everything or hosting a multiplayer kill-a-thon, this game can accommodate all comers.

The single-player game contains countless hours of action nestled within dozens of modes, and the game's story mode is a cliché, campy sci-fi time travel plot. You play as Sergeant Cortez, a badass soldier from the future who has been charged to travel through time to stop the dastardly TimeSplitters from annihilating the human race. A lame premise, indeed, but likeable characters, differing locations and eras, and a funny story are enough to keep you playing.

During your travels you'll hit up locations like a haunted mansion full of zombies and ghosts, and drop into a future similar to that in the Terminator movies with murderous robots rampaging the streets. You'll encounter a colorful cast of characters ranging from a futuristic ninja to an Amazon queen, and on several occasions, even meet up and fight alongside yourself -- at one strange point there are four versions of you lurking around. Needless to say, wackiness ensues.

The assortment of weapons offered is impressive. In Halo, for example, there are six or seven. In TimeSplitters, there are at least 20, including various shotguns, pistols, rifles, futuristic weaponry, and demolitions. There's one gun that does nothing against most enemies, but against a specific adversary, has explosive results.

When you're done with the story mode, the variety-packed arcade and challenge modes await, with FPS standards like deathmatch and capture the flag present and accounted for. There are also different game types like assault, where you attack or defend a base in a set amount of time, achieving various goals on the way; and a version of deathmatch where monkeys help the lowest ranked players.

A notable arcade mode game has you race a cat round a track -- not a car-sized cat, but a house cat with wheels for paws. Rather than hearing an engine revving, you hear your prey purring at different pitches. Instead of a horn, the cat meows. It's definitely a bizarre mode, but it's strangely captivating. Free Radical has made certain, just as things start to get difficult, to inject the game with humor. At points the game is laugh-out-loud funny.